14

"Love ____ Piano 2nd Floor"

15

Goodbye Rainbow Fun Kids. Forever. I will probably miss you at some point in my life.

the photo hiatus continues...

...on account of the too many packing & squeezing & resqueezing (IT HAS TO FIT oh WAIT I STILL HAVE A LOAD OF LAUNDRY THAT NEEDS TO DRY!! shit!). 
14 photos to go by August 10th! It will happen!!! Wait til I get out of this apartment and settled (? ha!!) at camp on Sunday. Eep!

She: an Analysis.

Indeed, it seems she has taken it the wrong way. (Or, perhaps, the wrong way was taken by you.) 

She felt she should explain her motives for sending suggestive photos and borderline-flirty quips. Maybe you have concluded as much, and maybe she even told you already, but it's been an uncomfortably long while since she's let herself feel any sort of emotion toward people...in general. She's been drifting along, in different parts of the world, for almost four years, meeting a million people, but connecting with a rare few. Sadly (or not, depending on personal perspective), it's been a game of detachment, building nearly impenetrable walls, defending herself against a potentially very painful sadness & heartbreak when, inevitably, she uproots and starts again elsewhere. She's simply not strong enough to have deep feelings for more than a few people (namely, romantic partners, but even friends fall into this category) when she knows her time with them is temporary. Maybe that partly explains her strong personality? It helps her quickly weed out those who won't stick around; she can know right off, or nearly, whether or not to invest any surface emotion and energy. S'true, there are certainly flaws in this strategy, but she's gotten on comfortable enough in its employ, until... you. 

It seems the time for strategy re-thinking has commenced. 

You got under her skin. She let you get into her head. For some reasons, mostly unknown...of all the people whose paths she'd crossed, she knew! Yours in particular would probably be the shortest, most fleeting (simply based on past unlucky okcupid encounters, your traveler status... nothing in her old play-by-plays pointed to "Yes! This one's a keeper! Let your guard down, Honey!" Which is why she was so irrationally saddened that Tuesday night of subway exit miscommunication.). Blame it on the weather, the moon's phase, the tilt of the planet, the atmospheric or barometric pressure, what she ate for breakfast, a particular olfactory stimulation, female hormones... she felt what she felt, for you and you alone. And what she felt, in her own self, regardless of whether you were feeling something of the same, was rare. 

Chalk it up to a gross misinterpretation of actions and words, do what you gotta do for your own self.  

THIS. This/that/these/those messages & photo, is what she had to do. Making a move, however risky, when she feels something. Telling people how she feels when she's little or nothing to lose and everything to gain. Having a little fun with someone who clearly also likes to have fun, pushing it pushing it pushing it until they tell her (or give her silence) to stop. She likes to test people. See if her energy is worth expending. That is what she does. 

Tell yourself "she took it wrong," if that's what you need to do, but don't tell her; she's already surmised as much. She saw You, or the You she wanted to see.

And she reacted in mind and body.

16

50mm f/1.4!!!!!!!!

17

"I love you!" goodbye presents for a few of the kidz that I like ( who hugged me and gave me candy and lots of smiley attention).

18

"Once when I was little
someone pointed out to me
some constellations but
the Big Dipper's all I could see"
--Built to Spill, "Big Dipper" 

19

Smogalicious Seoul from Bukhan Mountain
And Zom, just before dramatically ripping off her shirt and roaring.

20

Aerials. Children's Day 2011.

21

Never idle in Korea, even while resting on the way up a mountain...especially while resting on the way up a mountain.

22

A too-dark photo of skewered lamb and raw garlic, roasted over hot coals on our table, accompanied by large bottles of Tsingtao and bowls of salty fried peanuts.

23

Unmentionables.

24

Temples in mountains on rainy days.

25

26

Ancient Buddhist something or other at this National Treasure temple built around 650. 
Wheee Korean history^^

27

Some hanok (traditional) houses at a temple in Sobaeksan National Park. I guess the resident monks & nuns live inside.

28

In this photo I think they kinda just look like birds, but this is an apple tree. Someone, or lots of someones, put each apple into a bag so real birds can't eat them. An entire hillside of Sobaeksan National Park is specked with trees just like this one.

29

Oh, you know, just some colors I saw lying around...

30

Swollen rivers after monsoon rains under bridges in Seoul at dusk.

31

Playing with a new piece o' glass by the river on a Saturday at sunset in Seoul.

32

Who's got two thumbs, a submitted MFA application, a newly-acquired 70-300mm lens, a bottle of celebration bourbon, and a box of ice...^^

32

I hand-blocked GINA!! TWICE IN ONE GAME!!!!! And then, paid the price with my bruised middle finger. A month later, and my right hand carpals are still a bit sensitive. She's kinda good at ultimate.^^

33

Korean delivery feast with the Kapadias.
Bibim nangmyeon, kimchi mandu, yookaejang, and galbitang for 20,000 won. And, this country is in the practice of non-tipping. For anything. Ever.^^

34

... like a record, baby.

35

Haha! Statement of Intent/MFA Admissions application? Yeahhh, Brian & Julie pretty much summed it up.^^ 

(Btw, she was playfully strangling him in class, shaking him back and forth on her own, before any camera was in sight. Looks like they're getting that Korean couples thing down pretty early in life. Eeee scary!)

36

A(nother) planet underfoot.

37

A planet underwater.

38

39

Mystery fruit. I'm guessing something sour, crab apples, perhaps?

40

The Monsoon came early.

41

Things, making.